


Jack Frost's Isolation

by HarlequinDance



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Hurt!Jack, mentions of murder later on, mentions of thoughts of suicide later on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-31
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 12:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 5,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3649950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarlequinDance/pseuds/HarlequinDance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU Rise of the Guardians. In Antarctica, Pitch doesn't leave Jack at the bottom of the ravine and the boy of winter's staff is more important than you think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Antarctica

Jack ran to the edge of the ice cliff in Antarctica. He went to throw his memory box into the freezing sea, but stopped at the last second. Making a noise of frustration, he examined the box once again before putting it in his jacket’s pocket. 

“I thought this might happen. They never really believed in you. I was just trying to show you that. But I understand.” Pitch Black said from behind him. 

“You don’t understand anything!” Jack screamed, turning quickly and attacking the boogeyman with a bust of frost from his staff. The two continued to fight as Pitch tied to get on the boy’s side. 

“No?! I don’t know what it’s like to be cast out, to not be believed in? To long, for a family. All these years in the shadows I thought no one else know what this feels like. And now I see I was wrong. You don’t have to be alone jack. I believe in you, and I know children will too.” He said, as they fighting calmed. 

“In me?” Jack questioned, almost hopefully. 

“Yes!” Pitch said near laughing, “Look at what we can do! What goes better than cold and dark! We can make them believe, well give them a world where everything, everything is-“ 

“Pitch Black?” the frost boy interrupted. 

“And Jack Frost too. They’ll believe in both of us.” Was the older man’s counter. 

“No they’ll fear the both of us, and that’s not what I want. And for the last time, leave me alone.” He said walking away. 

“Very well. You want to be left alone? Done. But first,” he held the tiny struggling and squeaking fairy in front of him. 

“Baby Tooth!” Jack said in a panicked voice. He attempted to go back to aid the tooth collector, but Pitch squeezed her tighter, signify Jack to stay back. Jack raised his staff in a fighting stance. The ancient wood glowed its faint blue where Jack’s hands meet it, ready to attack. 

“The staff, Jack! You have a bad habit of interfering. Now hand it over, and I’ll let her go.” Baby Tooth squeaked her protest to no vail. After a few seconds of contemplation, Jack handed his staff over. 

“Alright, now let her go.” Jack demanded. 

“No. You said you wanted to be alone, so be alone!” Pitch broke Jack’s staff over his knee, and the boy looked like he’d been shot in the chest. The older man took advantage of the boy’s pain and blasted him with nightmare sand into a ravine where Jack fell, unconscious. A merciless laugh came from Pitch, and he summoned one of the Night Mares to drag Jack out of the ravine by the hood of his jacket. Baby Tooth squeaked her concern for Jack, wanting him the wake up. Once the boy was near enough, Pitch dusted Jack with more nightmare sand, insuring a fitful slumber. He then used his shadows to transport himself, the black horse, the tiny fairy, and the sleeping boy into his maze of a lair.


	2. Captured

They appeared in one of the largest room in the lair. Just two hours ago, when Easter was still savable, Jack had followed a young girl’s voice into the very room, only to be stalled there while the Nightmare King’s forces fought the Guardians and smashed millions of delicate, colorful eggs. 

The horse dropped the boy, and Baby Tooth was put in a cage with her sisters. Pitch placed the pieces of Jack’s staff aside against a corner of a crumbling wall. He then conjured iron shackles which he put on Jack’s ankles, wrists, and one around his neck. Jack’s ankles were chained together, and his hands linked behind his back. There were a few empty hanging cages, so Pitch heaved Jack into one and chained the shackle around his neck to the outside of the cage. The chain was just long enough that the boy could sit in the enclosure.

Below Jack was mountains of golden memory boxes, and all around him were similar cages filled with disheartened fairies. The Nightmare King reveled in his captured winter spirit and new found power from the destroyed Easter. He was so close to victory, he had to make sure everything was in place. Pitch went to tend his Night Mares for the upcoming total take over.


	3. Wake Up

Jack awoke with a start, and frantically tried to get his bearings. The cage swung with his chaotic movements until balanced himself. The cage was tall enough for him to stand, but in his confused and bound state he opted to be on his knees. The fairies sadly tweeted in their cages, none capable of flight. Jack quickly looked around, his eyes finally laying on his staff in the corner of the room.

“Oh no…..” Jack said, filling with dread and the memory of Antarctica. Ice and frost had already began to spread from his body without his will. Soon, the entire cage was coated in the stuff. The fairies watched on with curiosity and hope for a chance of escape while Jack’s enclosure creaked and moaned as the ice took its siege on the decrepit metal. A passing Night Mare noticed the commotion, and quickly went to its master. 

The ice that slithered around the cage was hardening and spreading up the chain that kept it suspended. The chains that bound Jack’s ankles and wrists snapped, but the shackles remained. The chain that kept the cage suspended popped, sending the cage with Jack inside tumbling to the ground below. In the fall, the chain that attached Jack’s neck to the cage also gave in to the cold. The shackles, once again, did not break so easily. When he hit the ground, Jack groaned in pain, but quickly came up with a plan of action. The fairies chirped happily as the boy kicked the door of the cage open. Getting his bearing again, he spirited toward the pieces of his staff in the corner. Every step he took, he left a foot print of ice and frost that forged beyond the boy’s quick steps.

Two Night Mares materialized, each taking a piece of the staff back into the shadows just as Jack had gotten to the corner.

“No!” Jack screamed, slamming his fists against the wall while ice and frost continued to grow from the boy. 

“Ah, I see you are finally awake” Pitch said as he appeared too close behind Jack.


	4. Ice Spreads

Jack turned swiftly, putting the entire weight of his body into a punch meant for Pitch. He ungracefully stumbled forward when his punch didn’t connect to anything. Pitch had already receded into the shadows. 

“Come on now, you can do better than that.” Pitch taunted.

“Give me back my staff right now!” Jack demanded as walked further away from the wall, looking about cavern for the King of Nightmares. He needed a plan. He couldn’t use his frost bursts so close to the fairies, and frost lighting was out of the question. Too dangerous. 

“Or what? You’ll throw a snowball at me?” the older man chuckled from another part of his domain. As he watched ice continue to grow from the youth, he became more curious about the connection between Jack’s powers and his staff.

“I wonder…” Pitch said under his breath. He then commanded a Night Mare to attack Jack. The black horse ran at full speed, the tiny fairies chirped warnings and the winter spirit crouched to touch the ground. At the last second he shot up out of his crouch, throwing up his hands and a curved wall of ice up over his head. The unprepared Night Mare crashed into the wall, destroying itself. Jack had not flow away, short frost from his hands, or use that frost lighting that had knocked Pitch out of the sky after Sandy’s last stand. 

"Perhaps he’s not taking this seriously" Pitch thought, annoyed. He ordered a stamped of Night Mares the attack Jack. The fairies we terrified for the boy. He had no time to flee, so he was forced to make a dome of ice to protect himself from the heard of black horses. 

Inside the dome, Jack was dodging the hooves that broke through, but the ice was quickly thickening. So quickly that hooves that attempted to damage the dome were encased in the frozen water, trapping the horse. The dome showed no sign of stopping as some Night Mares became wholly trapped in ice, while the others nickered and backed away. Jack stood in the increasing darkness of the dome, forming a new plan of action.

Due to Pitch’s control of shadows and darkness, the ground below Jack disappeared before his plan was fully formed. The plummeting sensation Jack felt in his stomach was made all the more frightening due to the fact that he could not fly without his staff. 

“Woahhh!” Jack was thrown about in the darkness until he got a hold of something to keep him from falling. What he had grabbed with his right hand swung him about, and groaned a bit with the sudden added weight. He heard familiar chirping louder than usual and promptly became aware of where he was.

“No!” Jack was holding the chain that suspended a cage containing a group of fairies. They tweeted happily, glad to see Jack in one piece. They did not know the danger they were in. Such small creatures won’t last five minutes around Jack in his current state.

Jack looked up to see ice already spreading quickly from his hand. He looked down to see that this cage was leagues higher from the ground then the one he was held in previously. This particular cage was also above a pile of very precious and potentially breakable memory boxes. 

The fairies became confused as they shivered. Ice was taking over the cage, but Jack would never hurt them. He was their friend, Pitch was the bad guy. 

As soon as he heard the shivering, the winter spirit knew that the lives of the fairies took top priority in this situation. 

Jack took a deep breath, and let go of the chain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! The usual problems (school, work, and family obligations) prevented me from writing this chapter in a timely matter.


	5. Stick the landing…kinda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *kicks in door, finger guns blazing* Hey everybody! Missed me? *nervous laugh* (please don't kill me, I know I've been gone a long time)

Jack quickly made a sled of thick ice and braced for impact. He hit a mountain of metallic memory boxes hard, scattering the ones of top before jerking around as he made his way down the uneven side. Definitely not as fun as a snow covered hill, but he made a mental note to thank Tooth for making the memory boxes so durable.

A Night Mare sideswiped him toward the bottom of the hill, throwing him against the wall. He groaned and steadied himself against the wall as he stood up. Pitched laughed above him and more Night Mares surrounded Jack, snorting and biting at him. The slowing spreading ice that was coming from Jack didn’t affect their trotting. The boy took a defensive stance. He wasn’t going down that easily. 

“Keep him occupied for a bit. I must create something that will contain him.” the Nightmare King said to his horses. They neighed a confirmation, and Pitch turned to find the deepest part of his lair. 

With Pitch gone and the horses closing in, Jack saw an opening. He crouched, then propelled himself from the wall, sliding on his belly on the ice he had created. He made it past the dimwitted Night Mares and scrambled to his feet. Without looking back, he ran.


	6. Down In The Earth

It certainly had been a good few days for Pitch. He almost felt like celebrating. He had all of Tooth’s helpers in cages and the bulk of the memory boxes. Sandy was out of the picture. Easter was a disaster and there was no doubt the rabbit was feeling the effects by now. Jack Frost was his prisoner, and no one was looking for him. Not after the treatment Pitch saw from the shadows when Jack returned to the Guardians with a memory box and no little fairy.

The Nightmare King sensed his lair pulse around him as he walked and checked off his successes. It would move on his command, with its ever changing stairs that lead nowhere, doors that open to pits, and endless hallways. From what Pitch observed, breaking the staff didn’t take Jack’s ice powers as he had hoped. It just made them sloppy. Making a prison tailored for the winter spirit would be easy. He just needed enough heat. 

So down he went. Down into the earth until he could use his knowledge of old magic and his powers over his lair to command a volcanic fissure into a small pool. His lair quickly made a barrier to contain the molten rock. The four walls and floor evened out, but the high ceiling stayed raw rock. Then Pitch concentrated nightmare sand into chains, a pulley system, and a cage.


	7. Run

The mini fairies were a choir of cheers when Jack had any success, but they mostly hopped around with worry on their feathered faces. The back end of a Night Mare was frozen in place near the dark globe, nipping at Jack when he ran by. The main cavern was starting to look like a winter wonderland and Jack was barely keeping ahead of the horses.

He ran up a flight of stairs that led nowhere, and leapt to another piece of the twisted lair. He sprinted up a slanted ramp, passing long chains that lead to cages that he couldn’t chance jumping near. A few of the smarter Night Mares were guarding anything that could be an exit, and some were guarding dead ends to throw him off. 

Pitch materialized high above the winter spirit and smiled. The boy reached the crumbing end of the slanted ramp and Night Mares were still advancing. Jack teetered at the highest corner and looked for a way out. One impatient horse reared, using its hooves to push Jack over the edge. 

Jack landed on stone instead of memory boxes this time. Pitch appeared next to him as soon as he met the ground and cast especially potent night mare sand over the boy. He fell asleep instantly. The Nightmare King gestured and a Night Mare picked Jack up by his hoodie. The three descended deeper into the lair.


	8. Jamie

“I don’t care what they said, I know you’re real. I know it.” Jamie said hugging his stuffed rabbit with all his strength. 

“Jamie, who are you talking too?” his mother asked from the hallway.

“Umm, the Easter Bunny.” he replied. She laughed, followed by “Ooooook.”.

He sighed and flopped onto his bed. “She doesn’t know, but you are real.” he whispered to the stuffed rabbit. He tugged his blue blanket around him and the toy, and quickly fell asleep. 

Veins of black sand had been invading the neighborhood children’s bedrooms, and soon found Jamie. But when the cloud of black sand settled over the boy’s head, a light emerged from the darkness. Black gave way to gold as miniature figures began to form. They simmered and danced, and revealed to be small golden versions of the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, North, and Sand Man. Once all the darkness was expelled from the sand, it swirled together and expanded. The Guardian of Dreams rubbed his eyes and looked down at the boy, smiling.


	9. A Queen Without An Army

A boomerang destroyed three Night Mares before returning to the full-sized Easter Bunny. Santa was almost as agile as his younger days, leaping from roof to roof swinging his twin swords. Streams of golden sand were going from home to home, it’s master close ensuring that the streams will not turn black. The Tooth Fairy’s wings cut through the Night Mares as she protected the Sandy. The battle was not going Pitch’s way, and he sprinted over the frozen lake, away from the town. Suddenly, he was on his back. 

“Leaving the party so soon?” North asked. 

“You didn’t even say goodbye.” Tooth said tossing a coin to the Nightmare King.

“A quarter?” he asked before she punched him. One of his teeth skipped over the ice. Before Pitch could recover, she took one of North’s swords and placed the tip on his throat. 

“Now where are my fairies?” she said. Stillness did not suit her, but precision required it. 

Pitch laughed right before a Nightmare side swiped Tooth, knocking her onto the ice. Another black horse appeared and Pitch was riding it away before the Guardians could stop him. 

Bunny was the quickest, and ran on all fours after him. He almost caught up with the Nightmare King, but the black horse and its rider disappeared into a hole under a broken bed frame in the woods. Sandy, Tooth, and North were soon with Bunny who stared into the hole.

“I bet that’s where ya helpers are.” he said.


	10. Gather

The Big Four had taken control of Burgess while the residents were fast asleep, but they weren’t at full strength. At the newly found entrance to the Nightmare King’s lair, the Guardians made a plan. 

Most of the American continent were still in the darkness of night, which meant a lot of kids were still sleeping. Sandy, protected by Tooth, began to spread as many dreams about the Guardians as possible before dawn reached the Pacific Ocean. Bunny and North gathered massive stone eggs, Yetis, and elves around the rickety bed frame in the forest. Nightmares and fear raged on but they all felt the surge of power from the belief returning to the children Sandy was reaching. 

The sun was high in the sky when Sandy and Tooth returned. Sandy had sent streams of dream sand to the kids living in the Pacific Ocean to foster more belief, but they needed to free Tooth’s helpers and to return the stolen memory boxes now.


	11. The Siege On The Nightmare Lair

Tooth was first down the hole. She was the one robbed of her army and the physical markers of her center. The Fairy Queen was quickly followed by North, Bunny, Sandy, the stone eggs, Yetis, and elves. 

The circular entrance was dark and long with jagged walls. It reeked of the earth, but not the rich smell of life like Bunny’s tunnels. This was the smell of decay and rot. The end of the tunnel gave a side view of the main cavern. 

Night Mares were everywhere, more than the Guardians had even seen. Inside the hanging cages, the mini fairies caught sight of their Queen and their twittering increased a hundred-fold. The noise alerted the Night Mares, and the Big Four were quickly pushed out just by the sheer number of dark horses. 

The Guardians were not ones to give up. When it was nighttime over masses of water Sandy and Tooth would be there with everything they had, but Sandy still needed to spread dreams to keep the belief in children alive and Tooth was still the only one who could fly and protect him. 

The assault on The Nightmare Lair continued for two weeks. When the Guardians finally had control of the dark kingdom, Pitch slipped into the shadows at the last second. The black sand had been cleansed and the Big Four made quick work of freeing the mini fairies, but the tooth collectors were still distressed. They were all talking so fast Tooth could barely understand them. She turned to Sandy, North, and Bunny and tried to translate. 

“Jack was here!” she said.

“On Easter? When he traded little one for tooth box?” North said pointing at the tooth collectors. On cue, Baby Tooth pricked him with her beak and squawked at him. 

“Oh, this is the one that was with Jack. She says she wasn’t traded for a memory box. She says after they put Sophie to bed, they ended up here. Pitch and Jack were fighting, and Pitch tricked him…”


	12. Jack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The italicized words are a translated version of Sandy's symbols/language.

Baby Tooth told the Guardians the whole story. Antarctica, the broken staff, Jack’s capture; everything up to him being taken to a different part of the lair. A stillness had come over Tooth with her crossed arms taut against her belly. Bunny too curled into himself, and with North’s pacing it seemed like he had absorbed Tooth’s nervous energy. Sandy was throwing sand symbols so quickly even his fellow Guardians were having trouble keeping up.

_‘-and how could you push him away like that? He was chosen to be a **Guardian**! You didn’t even let him explain what happened on Easter! Why-’_

Bunny interrupted, “Mate, we messed up big time. Especially me. But if the little sheila’s story ends with Jack bein’ dragged away by Pitch, he could still be trapped in here.”

“We must search lair! Leave no stone unturned!” North said brandishing his twin swords. The others nodded, and planned Jack’s rescue.

The Guardians and squads of their helpers followed every tunnel, went through every room, and checked everywhere they could. Hope began to falter as the search went on, but a small group of fairies found a curious room deep in the earth. The walls were smoother than others in the lair, and in the center of the floor was a pool of lava. The room buzzed with powerful, ancient magic. The fairies saw the chain that was going into the molten rock, and when they realized that it was moving they flew into a panic.

They went to their Queen as fast as they could. She was with Sandy, North, and Bunny who were looking in a dilapidated hallway. The fairies described the room and they were flying back with Tooth before she could remember to tell the others what her helpers had said. Sandy, North, and Bunny followed the blurs of fantastic colors though the Nightmare Kingdom as best they could.

When the Big Four finally arrived at the room with the pool of lava, the toy maker immediately saw the contraption of pully systems and chains. He ran to the crank on the wall and started the pulleys. Bunny, Sandy, Tooth, and her helpers waited at the edge of the pool.

The swinging became faster and faster has the cage come closer to the air. It emerged with lava desperately clinging to it and when it was fully free from the lava, the first thing the Big Four saw were mini versions of the Night Mares. They were galloping into cage, dissipating, then reforming to gallop again into the cage causing the swinging. The second thing they saw was a small form at the bottom of the cage. Sandy turned the mini Night Mares back into golden sand, revealing an unmoving Jack collapsed against the bars. Tooth gasped and raced to the door of the cage only to burn her hands trying to open it. “No no no no….” she repeated as tears blurred her vision. Her thin wings were forming small holes this close to the lava, and Sandy had to lasso her back before she fell in. Bunny was cursing Pitch in every language he knew while North was calling out to Jack, urging him to wake up. Sandy used sand to open the cage, then formed a cloud to gently lift Jack into freedom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Side note, falling into the lava would not have killed Tooth, but it would have hurt a lot)


	13. Free

Jack laid on the golden cloud as he did in the cage, on his side, knees drawn to his chest, long arms in a tight knot protecting his face and head. 

North rushed over, thinking the worst. Jack clothes were in tatters and his body wasn’t faring much better. The burns covering his skin were the most visible but there were numerous bruises and cuts from the Night Mares’ attacks. 

Suddenly Jack began coughing and lava spattered onto Sandy’s cloud. North went to touch Jack, but Sandy stopped him. 

_‘Don’t! You could jostle injuries we can’t see.’_

The coughing stopped as quickly as it started and Jack was still laying on his side. After a few seconds of listening that felt like eternity, Bunny said “He’s breathing.”

“We go to infirmary. Now.” North said as he pulled out a snow globe. 

Tooth turned to the fairies that had lead them there saying, “Tell the others we found Jack.” The small squad chirped in unison and speed away. 

North shook the snow globe and threw it, opening a portal to his workshop.


	14. Infirmary

Tooth silently sat on crisp white sheets while Bunny gently dabbed cream onto the burns on her hands. There were two parallel rows of beds in North’s infirmary, and Tooth was starting at a bed much closer to the door where North, Sandy, and a team of Yetis were tending to Jack. 

“He’s tough.” 

The Fairy Queen snapped her attention back to Bunny whose ears were flat against his head. She hadn’t noticed that he was done wrapping her hands. 

“He gotta be. 300 years a’ bein’ invisible, not knowin’ anythin-”

He stopped to take a shaky breath and she threw her arms around him, careful not disturb the wrapping he had done. They didn’t stay like that for long, but she did feel a few drops on her feathered shoulder. 

“Alright, let’s take a proper look at those wings.” he said brushing away the last of the tears. She did a 180 and sat with her legs criss crossed on the bed. This wasn’t the first time Bunny had treated fairy wings for burns, and several lifetimes ago he had created an ointment for the need. 

“Soon you’ll be right as rain, but no flyin’ ‘til then.” 

“You’ve got to take it easy too. I saw you limping down there, and that’s not your best work.” she said gesturing at his left arm. The bandage over his matted fur was a rush job. Bunny had been slashed by Pitch’s nightmare sand towards the end the siege on the Bogyman’s kingdom. It was sloppy but it held during the fight.

“Yeah, I got otha' work to do. You rest up.” Bunny reassuringly patted her shoulder before he went to join North, Sandy, and the Yetis.


	15. Books

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: burns

Laying there in North’s infirmary, Jack looked like an echo of himself. His once pale skin now ranged from pink to burnt black. Since he was curled into himself while in the cage, the burns on his back and legs were the worst. The cuts scattered on his body had Nightmare sand emended into them. Sandy had to be careful to clear each cut, and when he did a blue puss mixed with red blood was revealed.

Bunny had a variety of medical teas, but needing one for vomiting magma was a new one. He ended up making two cups of different teas. The first was for clearing airways that turned to gas once its swallowed, and the second was for getting moisture into the body. He combined all the ingredients on a table a bed away, and now just waited for them to steep.

“How’s it goin’?” Bunny asked turning to North.

He looked up from his worn leather book and said, “There waz lot of black sand, but Sandy haz almost finished getting all out.” It wasn’t happening grain by grain, but it was going to slow for Bunny. Sandy was clearing a particularly nasty cut on Jack’s leg when Bunny looked at the other three books on the side table.

“Are the Yetis gettin’ the rest of tha books?”

North signed and said, “These are rest of books. Most are about containing or fighting winter spirits, not healing them.” 

“Yeah” Bunny said feeling guilty. He brought springtime around the globe, which resulted in ample clashes with winter spirits who didn’t want their season to go. Outside of fighting about the change of seasons, winter spirits kept to themselves. Except for Jack.


	16. Heal

Sandy suspended Jack in the air just above the bed, keeping him of his side. Most of Jack’s shirt was gone, but the Easter Bunny cut the rest of it away. There was a wide cut on Jack’s side, and Bunny but a few drops from a glowing red vile into it. Soon it spread though his veins all over his body, pooling at the cuts Sandy had cleared. It did not pool around Jack’s organs or in his chest cavity, which meant there was no internal bleeding. He felt the winter spirit’s ribs, neck, spine, and all bones he could. Nothing broken. 

“Put ‘im on his back.” he said to Sandy and the floating man complied. Bunny lifted Jack’s head and slowly poured his tea concoction down his throat. Back gas that smelled like scorched earth escaped Jack’s mouth before dissipating into the air. Bunny gently laid his head back into the golden cloud. Starting with his torso, Bunny generously applied ointment to the burns before wrapping them. Then, Bunny took to Jack’s arms and legs. For the sake of Jack’s privacy, Bunny had the other turn around before he cut Jack’s pants off and applied ointment and wrappings. Once done, he dressed Jack in the pajamas North had set out for him. Then, Sandy moved Jack to the next bed and the yetis took the dirty sheets from the old one. The dream weaver used his powers to insure good dreams for Jack, and with that he and the other Guardians began treating their own injures. They didn’t see the frost that was forming over Jack’s wrappings.


	17. Morning

Tooth, even when healing, was an early riser. The first thing she saw was the storm raging outside the massive window at the end of the infirmary. Storms were familiar to the North Pole, so Tooth turned to the other occupant of the room. Jack was still asleep with the blankets almost up to his chin. Not wanting to disturb him, she carefully crept out of the infirmary and began walking toward to the kitchen. 

The halls were deserted at this hour. Even the hyperactive elves where sleeping. She entered the kitchen, went to the fridge, and stared in it, taking in its contents. Still undecided on what to eat, she closed the fridge and headed to the end of the room. Once she opened the pantry, she made a mental note to scold North about the number of sugary treats. Further back where the raw ingredients, and between the massive containers of flour and uncooked rice was an equally massive container of rava. She got an idea. 

The morning shift of Yetis began to filter in as she finished making her breakfast of rava idli. She took her meal and a cup of tea to a sitting room by the globe, watching it spin. Some of her fairies had come to the North Pole last night, including Baby Tooth, the one had told the Guardians that Jack had been trapped in the Nightmare Kingdom. Tooth greeted the party of mini fairies who joined her to watch the globe. She left the last rava idli for them as she finished her tea. The storm outside was hollowing, and Tooth shivered. She got up to make more tea when shouting began to echo through the workshop. 

Tooth, cursing her injured wings, ran towards it with her helpers following. She reached the source of the shouting and saw North and Bunny, both obviously recently awaken, with a group of Yetis at the door to the infirmary. Sandy had left hours ago to continue his rounds of spreading dreams.

“What’s going on?!” she asked. 

“Phil vas checking on Jack,” North said while gesturing to a Yeti whose right arm was covered in ice, “and Jack voke up and attacked him. Forced him out and locked the door.” Suddenly a cracking sound caught everyone’s attention. Thick ice formed at the edges of the door and continued to cover the rest of it. 

“More like sealed it.” Bunny said. “Clear out! Jack, stay away from tha door!” 

The Yetis scrabbled away and Bunny threw three red eggs at the door. On contact, the eggs exploded and on its wake was a wave of warmth. With the ice weakened, the Yetis swiftly forced the door open and the Guardians rushed it.


	18. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last time we saw Jack’s staff: chapter 3. Last time Jack’s staff was mentioned: chapter 4.

North, Tooth, Bunny, the Yetis, and the mini fairies stopped right inside the door. Jack was standing in the middle of the room, leaning on a bed post. Ice had covered the floor and was crawling up the walls. Jack himself was covered in frost, the thickest parts covering the worst of his injuries. He had healed tremendously overnight but he was not in a shape that should be out of bed. With wide eyes he stared at the huddle by the door, and Bunny spoke first.

“Mate, what happened wi-” 

“S-stay away from me!” Jack said. Bunny’s ears flattened on his head, remembering that the last time Jack saw Bunny was on Easter were he almost punched the winter spirit in the face. 

“Sweet tooth, its ok. We’re in the North Pole, you’re safe.” Tooth’s words didn’t seem to reduce Jack’s anxiety, and the window rattled from the storm outside. Jack put his hand on the floor and concentrated on the window. A thick layer of ice quickly quieted the window. 

“Where’s my staff?!” Jack asked, turning to the three Guardians. Confusion put them to silence for a few seconds, and Jack said “I need my staff! Where is it?”

Before anyone could say they didn’t know there the staff was, Baby Tooth couldn’t contain herself anymore and tried to fly toward Jack. 

“Baby Tooth! Stop!” Jack scrambled backwards, losing his footing and landing on his side. The mini fairy stopped midair half way between Jack and the Guardians. 

“Jack, little fairy is friend. She vill not harm you.” North said. 

“But I’ll hurt her! Everything I touch dies!” Jack spat out.


End file.
